The first post

…of a thru-hike can be the hardest because I often have little to say and no pictures to share before the hike begins. However this time around I’m feeling a bit more verbose, so here are a couple of thoughts.

In turning 60 this year it may not seem all that surprising that I’ve spent time reflecting back on the past years. I had just turned 50 when I set out on my original thru-hike, which coincidentally was also the Appalachian Trail. With a successful triple-crown now in the rear-view mirror, I’m filled with both gratitude and wonder at all the hiking I’ve gotten to enjoy during the past 10 years and the great people I’ve had a chance to meet along the way. The hike this year reflects my first return to the AT, my first attempt at repeating a long distance trail and my first northbound thru-hike. For those and lots of other reasons, I’m excited about this year’s hike and eager to get started.

Recently one of my adult children asked me whether I see thru-hiking as a kind of escapism. I thought about this for a while and discussed it with Wendy, my amazing wife of 33 years (and ticking) because I can always count on her for thoughtful insights. Her observation was spot on: yes, I was probably engaged in escapism during my first thru-hike, since I was experiencing that middle-aged, work-life burn-out that so many do. My only real priority during that hike was to embrace a quieter life in the woods that I hoped would be the antidote to the lethargy I was feeling about work and the direction of my life. I had never heard of the thru-hiking ‘triple crown’ and didn’t think I had any interest in other trails or really even in the act of hiking itself. At the time, the hike mostly represented a chance to spend five or six months away from work that I no longer found motivating, and a chance to shake off the cobwebs of decades of sedentary desk life. I recall being asked during that first hike whether I’d ever consider trying another long trail or repeating the AT and at the time I was confident I would do neither- both ideas just seemed ludicrous.

But something took ahold of me during the intervening years and I now find myself seeing no end in sight, so long as health and circumstance allow. And while it’s probably accurate to categorize that first thru-hike as escapist, my subsequent deep-dive into thru-hiking has not been a matter of getting away from anything as much as an effort to more fully embrace something. It turns out that thru-hiking has become the therapy I never knew I needed, a way for me to make sense of the chapters of my life and the means by which I’ve learned and accepted who I really am. There is something in my soul that responds favorably to the challenge of a long term, arduous hiking project and while I’ve had a number of other passions in life, thru-hiking has thus far been the one that has consistently delivered positive, tangible results in improved mental health and physical well-being. At some point there will come a time when I’m no longer confident that I can meet this challenge, but until then, as the song says,

“I sure don’t know what I’m goin’ for, but I’m gonna go for it for sure!”

John Perry Barlow